Deploy Apache Web Server on RamNode VPS

Prerequisites & VPS Selection

Static Sites

• 512MB RAM
• 1 vCPU
• HTML/CSS only

High Traffic

• 4GB+ RAM
• 4 vCPU
• Multiple sites

💡 Tip: Apache uses ~50-100MB per idle process. For WordPress or PHP apps, consider at least 2GB RAM for comfortable operation.

Install Apache

Update your system and install Apache:

Install Apache on Ubuntu/Debian

# Update system packages
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install Apache
sudo apt install apache2 -y

# Start and enable Apache
sudo systemctl start apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2

# Verify installation
sudo systemctl status apache2

# Check Apache version
apache2 -v

For RHEL/AlmaLinux/Rocky Linux:

Install Apache on RHEL-based systems

# Install Apache (httpd)
sudo dnf install httpd -y

# Start and enable
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd

# Check status
sudo systemctl status httpd

✅ Success! Apache is now running. Visit http://YOUR_SERVER_IP to see the default page.

Configure Firewall

UFW firewall configuration

# Check available Apache profiles
sudo ufw app list

# Allow Apache through firewall (HTTP only)
sudo ufw allow 'Apache'

# Or allow both HTTP and HTTPS
sudo ufw allow 'Apache Full'

# Enable firewall if not already enabled
sudo ufw enable

# Check status
sudo ufw status

For firewalld (RHEL-based):

Firewalld configuration

# Allow HTTP and HTTPS
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

Configure Virtual Hosts

Virtual hosts allow you to host multiple websites on a single server:

Create website directory

# Create directory for your site
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html

# Set ownership
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/example.com/html

# Set permissions
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/example.com

# Create a sample index page
nano /var/www/example.com/html/index.html

/var/www/example.com/html/index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Welcome to example.com</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Success! example.com is working!</h1>
</body>
</html>

Create virtual host configuration

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

/etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/html

    <Directory /var/www/example.com/html>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site

# Enable the virtual host
sudo a2ensite example.com.conf

# Disable default site (optional)
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

# Test configuration
sudo apache2ctl configtest

# Reload Apache
sudo systemctl reload apache2

SSL Certificates with Let's Encrypt

Install Certbot and obtain SSL

# Install Certbot
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y

# Obtain SSL certificate (auto-configures Apache)
sudo certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

# Verify auto-renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Certbot will automatically create an SSL virtual host. Here's what it generates:

/etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com-le-ssl.conf

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/html

    <Directory /var/www/example.com/html>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-access.log combined

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
    Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

PHP Integration

Install PHP and common modules

# Install PHP and common extensions
sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip php-intl php-bcmath -y

# Verify PHP installation
php -v

# Check loaded modules
php -m

# Restart Apache
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Create a PHP info page to verify:

Create PHP test file

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" | sudo tee /var/www/example.com/html/info.php

⚠️ Security: Delete info.php after testing: sudo rm /var/www/example.com/html/info.php

Configure PHP Settings

Edit php.ini

sudo nano /etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini

Common PHP settings to adjust

; Increase upload limits
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M

; Increase memory limit
memory_limit = 256M

; Increase execution time
max_execution_time = 300

; Set timezone
date.timezone = UTC

; Disable expose_php for security
expose_php = Off

Restart Apache after PHP changes

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Enable Apache Modules

Apache's functionality can be extended with modules:

Common modules to enable

# Enable URL rewriting (required for WordPress, Laravel, etc.)
sudo a2enmod rewrite

# Enable SSL module
sudo a2enmod ssl

# Enable headers module (for security headers)
sudo a2enmod headers

# Enable deflate for compression
sudo a2enmod deflate

# Enable expires for caching
sudo a2enmod expires

# Enable proxy modules (for reverse proxy)
sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_http proxy_balancer lbmethod_byrequests

# Restart Apache to apply
sudo systemctl restart apache2

# List all enabled modules
apache2ctl -M

Security Hardening

Create security configuration

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/security-hardening.conf

/etc/apache2/conf-available/security-hardening.conf

# Hide Apache version and OS
ServerTokens Prod
ServerSignature Off

# Disable directory listing
<Directory /var/www/>
    Options -Indexes
</Directory>

# Security headers
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
    Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
    Header always set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
    Header always set Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
    Header always set Permissions-Policy "geolocation=(), microphone=(), camera=()"
</IfModule>

# Disable TRACE method
TraceEnable Off

# Prevent clickjacking
Header set Content-Security-Policy "frame-ancestors 'self'"

# Disable ETag (fingerprinting)
FileETag None

Enable security configuration

# Enable the security config
sudo a2enconf security-hardening

# Test and reload
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Secure the Default Apache Config

Edit main Apache config

sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Add to apache2.conf

# Timeout for slow connections
Timeout 60

# Limit request size (10MB)
LimitRequestBody 10485760

# Disable access to .htaccess and .git directories
<FilesMatch "^.ht">
    Require all denied
</FilesMatch>

<DirectoryMatch "/.git">
    Require all denied
</DirectoryMatch>

Performance Tuning

MPM Configuration

Configure the Multi-Processing Module for your server's resources:

Edit MPM prefork config (for mod_php)

sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-available/mpm_prefork.conf

MPM Prefork settings (2GB RAM server)

<IfModule mpm_prefork_module>
    StartServers             5
    MinSpareServers          5
    MaxSpareServers         10
    MaxRequestWorkers      150
    MaxConnectionsPerChild   0
</IfModule>

Enable Compression

Create compression config

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/compression.conf

/etc/apache2/conf-available/compression.conf

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
    # Compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Text, XML and fonts
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
    AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
</IfModule>

Browser Caching

Create caching config

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/caching.conf

/etc/apache2/conf-available/caching.conf

<IfModule mod_expires.c>
    ExpiresActive On
    
    # Images
    ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 year"
    ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 year"
    ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 year"
    ExpiresByType image/webp "access plus 1 year"
    ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "access plus 1 year"
    ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 year"
    
    # CSS/JS
    ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
    ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 month"
    
    # Fonts
    ExpiresByType font/ttf "access plus 1 year"
    ExpiresByType font/otf "access plus 1 year"
    ExpiresByType font/woff "access plus 1 year"
    ExpiresByType font/woff2 "access plus 1 year"
    
    # HTML
    ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 0 seconds"
</IfModule>

Enable performance configs

sudo a2enconf compression caching
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Logging Configuration

View Apache logs

# View error log
sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log

# View access log
sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/access.log

# View specific site logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/example.com-error.log

Log Rotation

Check logrotate config

cat /etc/logrotate.d/apache2

/etc/logrotate.d/apache2

/var/log/apache2/*.log {
    daily
    missingok
    rotate 14
    compress
    delaycompress
    notifempty
    create 640 root adm
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        if invoke-rc.d apache2 status > /dev/null 2>&1; then
            invoke-rc.d apache2 reload > /dev/null 2>&1
        fi
    endscript
}

Reverse Proxy Configuration

Use Apache as a reverse proxy for Node.js, Python, or other backend apps:

Enable proxy modules

sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_http proxy_wstunnel

Reverse proxy virtual host

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName app.example.com

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyRequests Off

    # Proxy to Node.js app running on port 3000
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:3000/

    # WebSocket support
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} websocket [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Connection} upgrade [NC]
    RewriteRule ^/?(.*) ws://127.0.0.1:3000/$1 [P,L]

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/app-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/app-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable and reload

sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2ensite app.example.com.conf
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl reload apache2

Troubleshooting

Apache won't start

Debug Apache startup

# Check syntax errors
sudo apache2ctl configtest

# Check detailed status
sudo systemctl status apache2 -l

# View full error log
sudo journalctl -u apache2 --no-pager

# Check for port conflicts
sudo netstat -tlnp | grep :80
sudo lsof -i :80

Permission Denied Errors

Fix permissions

# Fix ownership
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com

# Fix directory permissions
sudo find /var/www/example.com -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# Fix file permissions
sudo find /var/www/example.com -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

.htaccess Not Working

Enable .htaccess

# Ensure AllowOverride is set to All in your virtual host
# Check your site config:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

# Make sure this is set:
# <Directory /var/www/example.com/html>
#     AllowOverride All
# </Directory>

# Enable mod_rewrite
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Useful Commands

Common Apache commands

# Test configuration
sudo apache2ctl configtest

# Graceful restart (no downtime)
sudo apache2ctl graceful

# Full restart
sudo systemctl restart apache2

# List enabled sites
ls -la /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/

# List enabled modules
apache2ctl -M

# Check Apache status
sudo apache2ctl status

Congratulations!

You've successfully deployed Apache web server on your RamNode VPS. Your sites are now ready to serve traffic.

Deploy WordPress Explore More Guides

Security Checklist

✅ Hide server version - Set ServerTokens Prod and ServerSignature Off
✅ Enable HTTPS - Use Let's Encrypt for free SSL certificates
✅ Disable directory listing - Options -Indexes in all directories
✅ Keep Apache updated - Regular apt update && apt upgrade
✅ Configure firewall - Only allow necessary ports (80, 443)
✅ Secure .htaccess - Deny access to sensitive files

Apache Web Server

📋 Guide Contents